DEPARTMENTBusiness Administration and Social Sciences / Industrial marketing and e-commerce

SUMMARYInternet as the tool of transferring data and information helps most
industries to be more effective in their specializations. Ecommerce as the
next step after internet guides the discussion into retail and act of
selling and buying. Making the act of purchasing via internet and
electronic means, speed up the retail activities and avoid making huge
losses of energy and costs.
But the huge load of data in ecommerce web site, make the process even hard
and time consuming. Many critiques agree on that the price that must be
spent to reach the right information is higher than gaining the data
without ecommerce. Some scientists complain that the time and energy that
may consume in reaching the appropriate information make the searching
steps even harder and out of control. Therefore, Recommender System has
been introduced.
Recommender System (RS) as a system which is used in retail sector helps
users in searching the appropriate product or service in the least time
with best price. It is mostly used in online services as an ecommerce tool.
But the main focus in this research is adoption of RS as the new system in
retail environment. To be more accurate in adoption discussion, we have
extracted that customers are the main target in adoption as they are the
major users of RS in retail industry. Thus, customers' behavior toward RS
as the recent system is the main topic in this research.
For this reasons some acceptance models will be nominated to be developed
for this purpose in the literature review part. Mentioning the important
factors for adoption system in retail, we will choose Theory of Planned
Behavior (TPB) to measure customers' behavior in accepting RS as the new
technology in retail. The questionnaire and the focus group that will be
conducted in this research will be referred to the factors of TPB model and
its usage in retail sector. The results from analyzing the gathered data,
will illustrate the important factors in accepting RS in retail.
Without ecommerce in retail sector:

* The retail industry may not achieve its goal which is to attract
new customers and keep customers as it is required

* The lack of time may cause serious problems in terms of fastness
and speed

* Cost and spending energy in shopping is two major points for
customers in purchasing